$1.5 DVDs from Warner ... a new trend?

Snappy! · 04-24-2006, 02:16 AM

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12425693/

via gizmodo

Quote:

Warner Home Video has begun trial sales in China of a movie DVD priced at just Rmb12 ($1.50), a move likely to anger consumers in developed markets such as Europe and the US, who typically pay $20-$30 for a recently released film on DVD.

So maybe all the DRM and piracy thread posters can take a minute to savor in this moment ... before asking their Chinese friends to send them a copy of the $1.50 DVDs.

TadW · 04-24-2006, 05:19 AM

I wish it was a "new trend."

Where is the global market every entrepreneur likes to talk about, when you see prices for retail DVDs to be up to 95% cheaper in China than anywhere elsewhere?

CommanderROR · 04-24-2006, 05:53 AM

You have to look at it in a slightly more complex light i'm afraid.

A worker in China get's paid about one tenth of the amount the same worker would get paid here in Germany (at least that's the number I was told). Selling a 30 Euro DVD in China would therfore mean selling a 300 Euro DVD here...rather unrealistic...I think you will agree...

The other problem however is, that most stuff these days is produced in countries like China where labour is very cheap, but still sold for a lot of money in the countries where labour is espensive (and unemployment is rising because of just that).

So you'd have to make some kind of "standard". You can't ask people in German to work "cheaper" (say like in Poland) while still trying to sell stuff to them for the full price. This is where the companies today are playing a very sick game in my opinion. Producing in "cheap" countries and selling in "expensive" countries might sound like a good idea, but on the whole it doens't make the poor countries richer and it DOES make the "normal people" in the rich countries poorer.

Put the prices on comparable levels and you can make labour comparable too, and nobody would have any reason to complain. You have to calculate the money's worth, not it's pure "value on paper" when comparing, which is exactly what is going wrong at the moment.
Saying things like "this IT specialist from Poland works for 1000 Euro, so why do you want 4000?" can't work because those 1000 are worht a lot more in Poland than they are in Germany, maybe even more than the 4000...

sorry about the rant...but this is bothering me big-time

Snappy! · 04-24-2006, 06:03 AM

Yeah, its wierd. So maybe piracy do have a role to play in content-related industries ... like ebooks industries.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Warner Bros hiring student to spy on pirates	Ben Thornton	News	8	03-31-2010 09:20 PM
Is this going to be a trend or something?	artemisblossom	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	25	03-04-2010 02:37 PM
Hope this becomes a TREND	pking36330	Amazon Kindle	2	04-14-2009 03:41 PM
Science Fiction Van Lorne, Warner: Wanted— 7 Fearless Engineers!. v1, 18 Oct 2008	Madam Broshkina	BBeB/LRF Books (offline)	0	10-18-2008 10:27 PM
Trend or fluke?	ghostwheel	News	8	02-28-2008 04:18 PM

04-24-2006, 05:19 AM	#2
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	I wish it was a "new trend." Where is the global market every entrepreneur likes to talk about, when you see prices for retail DVDs to be up to 95% cheaper in China than anywhere elsewhere?

04-24-2006, 05:53 AM	#3
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	You have to look at it in a slightly more complex light i'm afraid. A worker in China get's paid about one tenth of the amount the same worker would get paid here in Germany (at least that's the number I was told). Selling a 30 Euro DVD in China would therfore mean selling a 300 Euro DVD here...rather unrealistic...I think you will agree... The other problem however is, that most stuff these days is produced in countries like China where labour is very cheap, but still sold for a lot of money in the countries where labour is espensive (and unemployment is rising because of just that). So you'd have to make some kind of "standard". You can't ask people in German to work "cheaper" (say like in Poland) while still trying to sell stuff to them for the full price. This is where the companies today are playing a very sick game in my opinion. Producing in "cheap" countries and selling in "expensive" countries might sound like a good idea, but on the whole it doens't make the poor countries richer and it DOES make the "normal people" in the rich countries poorer. Put the prices on comparable levels and you can make labour comparable too, and nobody would have any reason to complain. You have to calculate the money's worth, not it's pure "value on paper" when comparing, which is exactly what is going wrong at the moment. Saying things like "this IT specialist from Poland works for 1000 Euro, so why do you want 4000?" can't work because those 1000 are worht a lot more in Poland than they are in Germany, maybe even more than the 4000... sorry about the rant...but this is bothering me big-time

04-24-2006, 06:03 AM	#4
Snappy! Addict Posts: 260 Karma: 4256 Join Date: Feb 2006 Device: SHARP Zaurus C1000	Yeah, its wierd. So maybe piracy do have a role to play in content-related industries ... like ebooks industries.